Jax Trax: Some tourists really don’t have a clue!

The Vienna Boys Choir at Mass

Yesterday morning we got up bright and early – well it feels early when the sun doesn’t come up as early as home!

We had tickets to Mass at the Hofburg Chapel.

I hear many of you ask, why would Jackie go to Mass, let alone on holiday?

Morning Mass at the Hofburg (Imperial) Chapel is the only place where the Vienna Boys Choir perform in January. I bought tickets online sometime ago.

It was a bit hard to find the chapel but thanks to a few maps in the street, we found our way through the maze that was the Imperial complex to the little chapel.

We didn’t see the choir until the very end of the service and I think some of the ‘audience’ were disappointed in that. We weren’t worried as we had gone to hear them, not particularly see.

One of the many entrances to the Imperial Comples

At the end of the service, the boys came down from the third tier of the chapel where they had been singing and lined up in front of the altar to sing one hymn.

It was nice to know they were for real up there, not just piped music through the speakers.

They were great, and some quite little boys too.

But, getting back to the heading of this blog.

It was a regular (according to Mr Jax, my religious interpreter) Catholic mass with a gospel reading and liturgy, and with communion. I always understood that communion was only for those who were confirmed, and Mr Jax added ‘and been to confession’.

There were some people lined up for this communion who obviously did not know the ritual side of it, and one (at least) who must have been trying to take the communion wafer as a souvenir! He didn’t put it in his mouth and walked back to his seat. A priest tapped him on the shoulder and signalled for him to put it in his mouth.

The giant St Stephens Cathedral

We spent much of the rest of the day walking around the old town part of Vienna, apart from a stop for coffee and Viennese cake (each).

At night we went to a Strauss and Mozart concert at the Kursalon Wien (a concert hall near our hotel). Although obviously geared for tourists with mainly ‘popular’ well known works played, it was very good.

There were a couple of playful arias and some dancers too. We met a couple of Aussies – another Jackie!